Be Water (TV)
I’m kind of grateful that I was able to watch “Be Water,” a new “30 for 30” from ESPN, before watching any of Bruce Lee’s films. Granted, I should have seen some of his films by now, especially considering my adoration of his son, Brandon’s, film career, but I just have not gotten to his work, like many other ones. What “Be Water,” from director Bao Nguyen, does is put him in perspective of how his career, and life, fit in to the time he lived. It’s a beautiful story, and imminently engaging for people familiar with him, and novices like myself.
“Be Water” begins in 1971. Bruce Lee has moved his family to Hong Kong, and he is looking to forge a distinctive identity for himself in films. His first films for Golden Harvest and producer Raymond Chow, “The Big Boss” and “Fist of Fury,” give audiences a look at the star’s natural charisma and philosophy in a way that his Hollywood work did not, and his combination of athleticism and spiritual ideas is appealing to audiences. We then go backward in time to recount Bruce’s life, from being born in San Francisco’s Chinatown district in 1940 to his time in Washington to him creating a kung fu school which caters to a wide variety to people, starts a family with Linda Lee Caldwell, and then, sees him return to acting on TV before finding his way to his greatest success on the big screen, achieved just after his unexpected, tragic death in 1973. All the while, we see how Asians were discriminated against in America, and how that played into Lee’s attempts to bring dignity to the portrayal of Asians in Hollywood. That alone makes it a valuable watch at this time in place.
Nguyen’s film is fairly standard documentary storytelling, but it’s the story that elevates it to a wonderful experience for people curious about the impact of Lee’s life. It’s fun to see the clips from Lee’s most famous films, as well as his work on the “Green Hornet” TV series, but it’s enlightening to see how those projects came to be, and how they evolved because of Lee being a part of them. “Be Water” shows us Lee as the personification of a movie star, but also, how he stayed grounded while also wanting to become a big star. His stardom is not just about himself, however, but about a larger representation for Asians in cinemas. His personality is what is grounded, and hearing how his philosophy about martial arts and filmmaking started to come about through the words of those who knew and loved him- his wife, his brother, his daughter, and family and fellow filmmakers- is one of the things about “Be Water” that is so thoroughly engaging, and keeps us riveted by this legendary story. Now, it’s time to dig in to the films that made him a legend for the audience.
